Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Reaction to Amazon retribution against IPG spreads quickly, but Big Six remain silent

The news that Amazon.com has removed thousands of ebooks from the Independent Publishers Group (IPG) — the distributor for hundreds of small presses — in retribution after IPG refused to give Amazon as big a discount as they demanded exploded yesterday, and drew concern from around the world. (See yesterday’s MobyLives report.)

“I am shocked at this use of power and monopoly and I am afraid they will try to do the same here too,” says Alessandro Gallenzi, managing director of British publisher Alma Books, in a Bookseller report headlined, “UK publishers’ ‘concern’ over Amazon e-book removals.”
“It’s obviously something that’s really concerning us,” says David Carson, co-publisher of Canada’s ECW Press, in a Toronto Star report.
The story was reported as far off as Italy, Ukraine and Russia.
And it wasn’t only publishers sounding appalled. In a BoingBoing report headlined “Amazon strong-arms Independent Publishers’ Group,” Cory Doctorow quotes sci-fi author Eileen Gunn:

Amazon, seeking to force independent book distributor IPG to accept a new, less favorable contract, has struck out at all the publishers and authors whose books are distributed by IPG. Not to mention all the readers with Kindles: You want a Kindle version of the American Cancer Society Nutrition Guide? You’re out of luck at Amazon. Maybe you should have bought a Nook.

(Doctorow takes the occasion to observe that offering ebooks DRM-free would have thwarted Amazon by providing a work-around for Kindle owners, who could have then bought IPG’s books elsewhere and still been able to read them.)
Author — and Kindle owner — Jim Hanas, whose book Why They Cried was one of the IPG titles vaporized from Amazon, writes on his blog that while “I have not been an Amazon-hater in the past” he is now urging people to get his book elsewhere, he has removed all Amazon buttons from his own website, and

“I blew my entire Amazon gift card balance on — and this is the delicious part — a Kobo Touch eReader. That’s right. Amazon doesn’t handle these directly, of course, but you can spend gift card balances with Amazon merchants, which is how I was able to buy the Kobo. It should arrive in a week and then, as a reader at least, I’ll be Amazon-free.”